Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Necronomicon was AWESOME. Probably the best one yet. I was on ten panels, and got to judge the costume contest. And I dressed up in costume myself (although, of course, did not enter the contest). And for the first time I entered some of my artwork into the art show--and I sold several piecees!

Me on a panel..I forget which one. I must have been looking at my phone?

My art, both the panel and the table (left of the pink mushroom thing).

There were also some very STRANGE THINGS at Necro this year. Like...the wall from Stranger Things and the one and only Dr. Paul Bearer Jr. from Creature Feature. He is, of course, not the original with whom I grew up, but I was completely star-struck nonetheless.

After that came Halloween. Then a trip to Universal Studios to celebrate family birthdays. If you haven't seen my bazillion previous posts with pictures from this oft-visited theme park, here's a few:

Beastie 2 and one of her heroes.

This is in Sapphire Falls (a Universal Studios hotel we walked around).I WANT THIS ROOM.

Obligatory dragon photo from Diagon Alley.

Having fun with monsters in the Prop Shop.

Whilst most of this was happening, I have been painting and whatnot. I have several pieces on display at Center Place, next to the Brandon Library (in, of course, Brandon, FL). If you're local, go check it out.

And speaking of art...I am running a special at my Etsy store. Free shipping on everything from now until Christmas day. This includes mixed media (most 6"x6"), pendants, and wands. There is also one original acrylic painting (4"x4" plus a frame). To keep things simple, the code is FREESHIPPING. Just click HERE.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Yes, I know, I should have posted this before now. But I've been working on getting ready for this!In just a few days I'll be heading to the Necronomicon, a sci-fi/fantasy/horror/gaming convention in Tampa. I've been a guest author there the last few years, and will be again this year. But this time I'm also participating in their art show, which means I'll have my paintings, mixed media, and wands on display and for sale!If you want to see the wands and mixed media that will be there, check out my Etsy shop (which will be on vacation while I'm gone so I don't double-sell anything). Also, if you can't make it to Necro and are wanting something from my shop, might want to grab it now...Just sayin'. If you want to see examples of my acrylic paintings, visit my Fine Art America page. No, not all of those will be at Necro, and there are a couple paintings that will be there that aren't available as prints. But this will give you an idea of what to expect.Another thing to expect is a lot of geeky fun, including a vendor room full of cool stuff and costumes everywhere--like these from two years ago:

Friday1:00:00 PMMaintaining Mystery without Losing Your ReaderFriday4:00:00 PMWriting for the YA MarketFriday6:00:00 PMPoint of View: Head Hopping HOSTFriday9:00:00 PMPlotting a MysterySaturday12:00:00 PMWriting Novels: Ending it Right Saturday3:00:00 PMWhy I Write Short FictionSaturday4:00:00 PMCharacters That Aren't a Reflection of YouSaturday6:00:00 PMThe Fine Art of ExpositionSunday11:00:00 AMThe Care and Feeding of Your Creative ProcessSunday1:00:00 PMSeeing What Nobody Else Sees: Art in the Eye of the ArtistHope to see you there! BTW--I won't have an author table, but I'll be running all over the convention area the whole weekend. Don't be afraid to hunt me down if you want signed books, or just to say hello!

Well, I think I told you about my experience at the end of the 2016 Realm Makers conference. I, along with two other Realmies, needed to catch a train back to the airport, but the side of the station that train stopped at was opposite the side of the tracks our dorm at Villanova was. Which normally wasn't an issue as a tunnel runs underneath the tracks--but that morning, the tunnel was flooded.

The train was due in just a few minutes and we couldn't see any other way across. (I later found out there was a bridge farther down, but even if we'd known about it, I don't think we'd have had time to truck over, across, and back, dragging all our luggage.) So, we jumped this fence:

I recounted this tale in a Realm Makers forum, and then in another, completely unrelated conversation, I used the phrase "I don't mean to jump rails here" and someone cleverly replied, "Oh, you know all about jumping rails."

It got me thinking, that yes, I do. I'm constantly jumping rails. In college, I jumped from art education as a major to biology, then worked teaching math, then started homeschooling, then writing, and back to painting....and my art itself ranges from drawing to painting to mixed media to pendant-making to woodworking. I am forever jumping to a new rail.

AND....if you're simply wanting prints of my paintings or drawings, I have some posted on Fine Art America. You can order a variety of sizes, and even have those images put on different items such as phone cases and pillows. To visit my Fine Art America store, click HERE.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

I've been doing artwork of one type or another my whole life. Started off drawing, mostly pencil and charcoal, particularly in high school:

This one an annual art contest at my high school.

For years after that, I pulled back from drawing and focused on more craftsy things. Scrapbooking. Painting plaster figurines. Using my art skills to make custom cornices for my windows and to re-purpose items to be used around my house. All artsy, all creative, but not the "real" art I'd aspired to when I was younger.

A few years ago, after I started my writing journey, I did spend some time drawing again. Mostly beetles like this:

And things like this Elf Girl:

I draw off and on in spurts, but haven't really *done* anything with these works. Got a couple in small press magazines and books, but I haven't pursued trying to sell my work, other than in pendant form:

A few months ago, though, that shifted. I visited a friend's house where I got to play around with some of her mixed media stuff. It was great fun, and I immediately went out and bought some canvases, paint, and a few new brushes. I started playing around, and pretty soon I had some mixed media art of my own:

One of my very first pieces

Having fun with steampunk effects

For Halloween - This one sold at a local art show!

The image directly above included some actual hand-painted feathers, as opposed to just background painting and layering techniques I used in the previous pieces.

Which got me in the mood to do some actual painting:

That Sun Dream-catcher has been in my head for months. I think it took me tackling the other works to give me the confidence to finally paint it.

And then...

And fairies....

And it hasn't stopped yet. I find myself thinking all day about what piece to do next, looking for inspiration everywhere, and shopping for more supplies :).

It has all culminated so far in having my very first table at an Art Show!

You can see that I have quite a bit done now. Still making pendants, too. And wands! (Which I'm pretty sure I've posted about before.) My books are on the table, too, of course -- writing is still my passion! I've got to figure out how to balance the two, as right now I'm on a massive art streak, but writing will not be going away.

So, this has been my life lately -- the return of Artist Me in full force. I'm looking forward to more art shows, and over the next few weeks I'll be working on putting up an Etsy store so I can sell everything online as well. I promise to keep you posted!

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

I've been wanting to post this for a very long time, because every time I go to the grocery store it drives me friggin-bananas that no one knows how to bag groceries anymore. It really shouldn't take a college degree, but I guess basic physics properties are no longer common knowledge.

When I learned to bag groceries, lo, so many years ago, it was taught that to the best of your ability, you try to make every bag look approximately like this:

The heavy items go on the bottom, then not so heavy, and finally things like bread and bags of chips go on top.

You do not put all the heavy things in one bag, and all the light things in another:

This is why:

Even though you are probably pushing the bags out to your car in a cart, at some point you do have to carry them, and it's so much easier if you are not forced to walk like a human question mark.

The same goes for this:

Yes, that's a messy drawing. But that's what you get when you bag groceries like this--a mess. Everything spills out of one bag, The other looks like a sad, pathetic little crumpled thing. Seriously, how unfair is this?

Not that I'm saying everything needs to be homogenized here. While the weight distribution of your bags really should be about equal, the temperature is a different matter altogether.

Let's look at this informative diagram of the direction heat moves:

Notice that heat moves away from its source and toward areas of no heat (or less heat).

This is why we separate warm items from cold items:

When we don't separate them, what we get is this:

I will note here that separation can be taken too far. Seriously--what is going through the minds of the baggers who put one or two items in each bag? How is this easier for the customer? Or are you just showing off how quickly you can whip open those clingy plastic bags? Sorry, but save it for America's Got Talent and don't make me wrangle 47 sets of handles to get my groceries into the car/house.

OK, thanks for letting me get that off my chest finally. For my next lecture....

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Two years ago, my family attended Tampa Bay Comic Con for the first time. (You can see my post about that here.) Last year, it just didn't work out for us to go at all.

Me, William Hatfield, and Rod Martinez

This year, though...I was invited to be on writers panels! I got this out-of-the-blue email from an author -- Rod Martinez, who writes Middle Grade adventure stories. He had set up a panel and needed panelists. He told me he Googled something like "local Tampa fantasy authors" and my website came up in the top listings. He liked my site, thought I'd be a good fit, and contacted me. I had to think about it.,,,for about three seconds ;). Hah! Of course I was going to say yes! It's Comic Con! (Also, lesson to authors: When they talk about having an online presence, this is one reason. It's not just so your books are easy to find--it's so YOU are.)

Well, one panel led to another, when an author had to back out. And then a third when a dear author friend recruited me for a panel he was on.

It meant spreading my days out--early morning Saturday, late night Saturday, then again Sunday morning. So worth it, though. I had a blast and met some of the coolest people! The audience members asked all kinds of questions, as most of them were writers themselves. They were so kind and attentive and came up after the panels to talk to us panelists, and even buy some books.

In between panels, I hung out in the vendor hall with my buddy, author William Hatflield, pictured in the bottom right here:

Tell me those costumes aren't cool! (If a bit blurry, because I forgot my real camera and had to use my phone.) The guy on stilts walked around like he did that all day normally. And Predator...well, come on. Fab.

I did get some clearer pics Sunday, when I remembered my real camera....including Velma, who bought a copy of Finding Angel after hearing me talking to someone else about my books. Thank you, Velma!

That Moaning Myrtle costume is just brilliant. And even though I knew this was not actually Levar Burton, I totally fan-girled at the sight of Geordi La Forge.

Quick story before I close out here...

I was leaving Comic Con after my time there Sunday morning -- panel, hanging out with Bill, walking the way too crowded vendor hall -- and when I got to the exit, I realized it was raining. Well, I had books in a basket and no way to keep them dry. I decided to try to find a plastic shopping bag or something to cover my books with, and I walked through the main hallway downstairs. Suddenly a guy comes up to me and asks if the books in my basket were books I wrote. Tall, youngish (in other words, obv younger than me), very sweet guy. I tell him, yes, they are. He asks if he can buy copies.

Of the whole series.

He loves meeting authors, he tells me, and wants copies of whatever I have that I wrote myself.

This, folks, is something that just makes an author's day. So, Josh, it was great meeting you, and thank you for making an already fantastic morning even more awesome!

And that's it--my first time as a panelist at Comic Con.

Next, I'll be doing panels again at Necronomicon in October. A smaller con, but oh, it's where my heart is! I've been attending Necro for years, doing panels there ever since Finding Angel released. I'll post here as soon as I have my panel schedule there. In the meantime, if you want more info, visit the Necro site HERE.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

THIS IS WHERE I'LL BE THIS WEEKEND!!!I've been invited to be on three panels. Details below. If you are at the Tampa Bay Comic Con during those times, please come by and see me!

Tampa Bay Comic Con, August 5-7, 2016

Tampa Convention Center.
333 S Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602

GOING WHERE NO WRITER HAS GONE BEFORE
Saturday, 8:30am - 9:30am | Rm. 20
Do you have a great story sitting on the porch of your brain house, but having trouble getting that plot off of it’s butt? Well, come to where no writer has gone before, where writer’s block doesn’t exist, but instead the next Star Trek.

ACTION, SCI-FI, AND FANTASY WRITERS
Saturday, 10:30pm – 11:30pm | Rm. 20
Enjoy the thrilling world of action, fantasy and sci/fi fiction as it comes alive by the authors who craft them. Meet, greet and hear them read from their own works of art as you are drawn into their world of storytelling. Join them for a lecture on writing and crafting novels along with a reading from their latest books.

FICTION AND FANTASY WRITING
Sunday, 10:00am – 11:00am | Rm. 5
Every popular science fiction or fantasy writer of novels, comics, or any other medium started out as an “aspiring” author. A panel of pro SF and fantasy writers will discuss the art and science of writing and will give advice to move you from “aspiring writer” to “writer.” Q&A to follow.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

This was year four of the Realm Makers Speculative Fiction Writers Conference. It's unique in that it's geared toward spec-fic (sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal) written from a Christian worldview. I have had the fortune of being part of this conference from the very beginning. The first year was pretty small, maybe 85 people including faculty. I was on a couple of panels that year. Year two saw a sliver of growth, and I taught a couple classes and participated in one panel. Last year, the third year, Realm Makers literally doubled in size. We got bigger names for faculty and had a larger offering of classes, so I was simply an attendee. (I did get to judge the costume contest, though. And my short story was a finalist in the RealmScapes anthology contest.)

This is available on Amazon!!!

That brings us to year four. Again, I wasn't faculty, but I served as Appointment Coordinator. That meant working with spreadsheets, plugging in lots and lots of names, making sure people weren't scheduled to meet with two agents or editors at once--which, trust me, is very much a challenge! At the conference, it meant lots of last-minute changes, making forms for mentor appointments, and checking on the faculty who were available for appointments. I'll tell you this: Our faculty was awesome to work with!!!!
I mentioned mentor appointments. That was something I got to do myself--as a mentor! I had a spot on a comfy couch and got to advise authors on ways to improve their writing, or their pitches, and encourage and just connect. It was so fun!

Lastly, there was the Paranormal/Supernatural Panel I moderated. We unofficially snuck Horror into the mix, and I am so glad we did. That pretty well took over the conversation and spawned some awesome questions from the audience. The panel was only an hour long, but if we hadn't had to break for dinner we could have continued for hours.

Oh, what else...

The costume dinner, of course! This year I didn't let anyone know ahead of time who I'd be going as. It's an odd choice, and got a variety of reactions. Yes....I was Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors, and I had Audrey 2 with me. I made my carnivorous companion myself.

There were tons of other great costumes as well:

Those are just a few examples of the cosplay going on at Realm Makers!

Fun was had everywhere else as well. In classes, during meals, walking from here to there and back again, and just hanging out in the gathering areas. Realm Makers is a place where we all felt connected, where we all knew we belonged, where we could have differences of all kinds and still feel part of a greater whole.

Oh, and there was this cutie:

Doesn't that alone make you wish you were there???

So, there you have it. My weekend adventure at the greatest Speculative Fiction Writers Conference EVER. The only thing missing is my grand exit. The tunnel that takes you under the train tracks to the station for the train to the airport was flooded, so I and two train-traveling buddies decided the easiest way to cross was...the ill-advised way.

Yeah...nowhere did I say this was a conference for rule-followers!

Hope you've enjoyed my post, and if you want to see some more pics, visit my public Realm Makers 2016 Facebook album. (No, you don't have to have a Facebook account to view it. But if you do have an account and you want to keep up with my writing adventures, feel free to send me a friend request! You can also follow my Author Page.)

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Priorities. Those things you have to put before other things because you have made commitments.

Yesterday I wanted to announce that Legacy Rewound is live, but Beastie 1 (my son, for anyone new to the site) and I were volunteering at local food bank most of the day. Yep, that comes first. There are families that rely on that ministry for food every week, and the ministry relies on us.

This morning I wanted to announce that Legacy Rewound is live, but Beastie 1 is helping his grandpa fix a car--a project that has done a lot to bring them closer and they've been having so much fun--and I needed to drive him over there. So yep again, that comes first.

This afternoon I wanted to announce that Legacy Rewound is live, but Realm Makers is coming up FAST, and the work I'd intended to do over the weekend was side-tracked by a stomach bug. So today I needed to get schedules finalized and submitted. Realm Makers is a conference I believe wholeheartedly in, and I want more than anything for all of it to go smoothly--including my part.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

If you follow me on Facebook, you got a sneaky-peek of the cover for Legacy Rewound yesterday. I was home sick in bed when my proof copy arrived, and I just couldn't wait to share, but I wasn't up to doing it properly. Here's the image I posted:

My photo doesn't quite do it justice, though. Yes, the real-life cover is a bit darker than the original jpeg, but it's so, so lovely. Here is what the original file looks like, front and back:

Just a few more days and it'll be live and ready for purchase! Just waiting for Amazon to sync the pages, then I can share the link!